News 2019

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Results 21 - 40 of 151.


Environment - 18.11.2019
Saving ’Half-Earth’ for nature would affect over a billion people
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Environment - Economics - 18.11.2019
Climate change expert outlines humanity’s role in speeding global warming
Climate change expert Professor Sir David Hendry will explore how humanity has accelerated global warming when he delivers the annual China Institute Li Siguang lecture at the University of Birmingham on Wednesday 20th November. And his talk 'Climate Change in the Long Run' will illustrate how climatologists, volcanologists, dendrochronologists, meteorologists, geophysicists and health scientists are working together to tackle climate change and its consequences.

Environment - Life Sciences - 14.11.2019
Evolution can reconfigure gene networks to deal with environmental change
Scientists at the University of Birmingham have unravelled the genetic mechanisms behind tiny waterfleas' ability to adapt to increased levels of phosphorus pollution in lakes. By mapping networks of genes to the physiological responses of ancient and modern waterfleas (Daphnia), the researchers, based in the University's School of Biosciences , were able to show that a cluster of over 800 genes, many of them involved in metabolic processes, evolved to become "plastic", or flexible.

Environment - Life Sciences - 12.11.2019
Bacteria may contribute more to climate change as planet heats up
As bacteria adapt to hotter temperatures, they speed up their respiration rate and release more carbon, potentially accelerating climate change. By releasing more carbon as global temperatures rise, bacteria and related organisms called archaea could increase climate warming at a faster rate than current models suggest.

Environment - Economics - 07.11.2019
Capturing carbon dioxide to make useful products could become big business
Waste carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels could be used to make valuable products such as plastics, fuels and cement, suggests new research. If done correctly, using waste carbon dioxide (CO2) to make useful products would also help offset the costs of mitigating climate change, argue scientists in a review .

Environment - 06.11.2019
Wasps as an effective pest control for agriculture
Common wasp species could be valuable at sustainably managing crop pests, finds a new UCL-led experimental study in Brazil. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , found that social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane.

Environment - Chemistry - 05.11.2019
Deep sea vents had ideal conditions for origin of life
By creating protocells in hot, alkaline seawater, a UCL-led research team has added to evidence that the origin of life could have been in deep-sea hydrothermal vents rather than shallow pools. Previous experiments had failed to foster the formation of protocells - seen as a key stepping stone to the development of cell-based life - in such environments, but the new study, published in  Nature Ecology & Evolution , finds that heat and alkalinity might not just be acceptable, but necessary to get life started.

Environment - 05.11.2019
Satellite tracking shows how ships affect clouds and climate
By matching the movement of ships to the changes in clouds caused by their emissions, researchers have shown how strongly the two are connected. When ships burn fossil fuels, they release airborne particles containing various naturally occurring chemicals, including sulphur. These particles are known to modify certain types of clouds, which can affect climate.

Environment - 01.11.2019
Palestinian farmers benefit from Birmingham water technology project
University of Birmingham scientists have worked with international students to produce prototype desalination equipment that could help Palestinian farmers avoid water shortages and grow crops efficiently. The equipment is built from off-the-shelf parts and could be deployed easily and relatively cheaply across the Middle East.

Astronomy / Space - Environment - 01.11.2019
A bird in the nest and moving to Mars: News from the College
Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From bird-chick recognition, to Mars explorations, here is some quick-read news from across the College. A bird in the nest Passerine (or 'perching') birds do not differentiate between the chicks in their nest - meaning they potentially raise chicks that aren't theirs, such as those that are the product of a cheating partner.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 30.10.2019
Climate models and geology reveal new insights into the East Asian monsoon
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have used climate models and geological records to better understand changes in the East Asian monsoon over long geologic time scales. Their findings, published today in the journal Science Advances , suggest that the monsoon system's development was more sensitive to changes in geography (especially mountain height) rather than carbon dioxide, and that the monsoon came into existence around 40 million years earlier than previously thought.

Environment - Life Sciences - 29.10.2019
Macaques’ stone tool use varies despite same environment
Stone tool use develops differently within species of Old World monkeys in spite of shared environmental and ecological settings, according to a new study involving UCL. Macaques are the only Old World monkeys that have been observed using percussive stone tools and scientists do not know for certain how or why certain groups have developed this behaviour.

Chemistry - Environment - 29.10.2019
New hydrogen production method could support sustainable fuel creation
A new method of extracting hydrogen from water more efficiently could help underpin the capture of renewable energy in the form of sustainable fuel, scientists say. In a new paper, published today , researchers from universities in the UK, Portugal, Germany and Hungary describe how pulsing electric current through a layered catalyst has allowed them to almost double the amount of hydrogen produced per millivolt of electricity used during the process.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 25.10.2019
Climate change is affecting the way Europe floods, experts warn
Climate change is disrupting the rhythms of spring growing and river flooding across Europe, which could pose new problems for biodiversity and food security in floodplains, scientists say. New analysis of five decades of European flood and temperature data, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, demonstrates for the first time an increasing overlap between the onset of spring and the highest points of seasonal flooding.

Environment - 21.10.2019
Fossil fuel industry misled the public about climate change
An international group of scientists has shown that fossil fuel corporations have, for decades, denied the public's right to be accurately informed about climate change by funding efforts to deceive people about the dangers of their product. A report illustrating how the industry "polluted the information landscape" and how the damage could be undone is published today [Monday 21 October].

Life Sciences - Environment - 18.10.2019
Krill’s role in global climate should inform fishing policy in Antarctica
Krill ' small crustaceans eaten by whales, seals and penguins ' play a vital role in removing carbon from the atmosphere, according to a new study. A study on how krill affect the Southern Ocean's ability to take in carbon from the atmosphere and bury it on the seafloor has revealed the small crustaceans play an outsized role in the process.

Environment - Paleontology - 17.10.2019
How ocean ecosystems recovered after mass extinction event 66 million years ago
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have produced an unprecedented record of the biotic recovery of ocean ecosystems that followed after the last mass extinction, 66 million years ago. In an article published in the journal Nature , the team, which includes researchers from Southampton, University College London, Frankfurt and California, present a 13 million-year record of fossil plankton dynamics in the aftermath of near annihilation, providing a remarkable glimpse into how the marine ecosystem 'reboots'.

Health - Environment - 15.10.2019
Predicting Ebola outbreaks by understanding how ecosystems influence human health
The next Ebola outbreak could be predicted using a new UCL-developed model that tracks how changes to ecosystems and human societies combine to affect the spread of the deadly infectious disease. The model could help policymakers to decide where to target vaccine deployment, or develop healthcare infrastructure, to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks - illnesses that spread between animals and humans.

Economics - Environment - 15.10.2019
US green economy worth $1.3 trillion per year
The US green economy is estimated to generate over $1.3 trillion in revenue per year, representing 16.5% of the global green economy, according to a new study by UCL. The green economy - broadly defined as an economy that is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive - is a major source of jobs in the US, employing an estimated 9.5 million people.

Life Sciences - Environment - 14.10.2019
Conclusive sighting of rare whale confirmed
The first conclusive evidence of a rare whale species - the True's beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) - inhabiting a region of the North East Atlantic has been confirmed by a research team involving UCL. Images taken during a wildlife photography trip in the Bay of Biscay in July 2018 have given conservationists the opportunity to study this species in exquisite new detail.